Abstract: A time-resolved fluorometer, having a light tight enclosure, for detecting the presence of an analyte in a sample. Within the light tight enclosure are a pulsed dye laser that produces a pulsed light beam for sample excitation, a light tight sample excitation station through which samples, treated with a reagent composition, are passed into the path of the pulsed light excitation beam to produce a delayed fluorescence emission, a fused silica lens system through which the delayed fluorescence emission passes and an assembly which selectively amplifies, counts and characterizes the resulting emissions. The operation and coordination of the time resolved fluorometer are under computerized control as are the readings reported. Significant improvements relate to the fused silica lens systems and interference filters, cooling of the emission measurement apparatus and particularly the improved performance resulting from the combination of these aspects.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improvement relating to adhesion of samples onto a surface for nucleic acid hybridization assay to detect a target polynucleotide. In one aspect, the invention provides a method of adhering a tissue, cell or other target polynucleotide-containing sample to a substrate under nucleic acid hybridization assay compatible conditions. In another aspect, the method comprises a hybridization assay procedure. Also disclosed are kits for performance of such procedures.

Abstract: A detectable molecule of the formulaA.sup.3 --(--X--R.sup.1 --E--Det.sup.b).sub.mwhere A.sup.3 is A.sup.2 or a polymer, where A.sup.3 has at least one modifiable reactive group selected from the group consisting of amino, hydroxy, cis OH, halides, aryl, imidazoyl, carbonyl, carboxy, thiol or a residue comprising an activated carbon; --X-- is selected from the group consisting of ##STR1## a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 branched or unbranched alkyl or aralkyl, which may be substituted by --OH; --Y-- is a direct bond to --E--, or --Y-- is --E--R.sup.2 -- where R.sup.2 is a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 branched or unbranched alkyl; Z.sub.a is chlorine, bromine or iodine; E is O, NH or an acyclic divalent sulfur atom; Det.sup.b is a chemical moiety capable of being detected, preferably comprising biotin or a metal chelator of the formula: ##STR2## or the 4-hydroxy or acyloxy derivative thereof, where R.sup.3 is C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl or CH.sub.

Abstract: Polynucleotide sequences in a sample of biological or nonbiological material are detected by a method involving fixing of the sequences on a solid support and forming an entity between the fixed sequences and chemically-labeled polynucleotide or oligonucleotide probes having a sequence complementary to the fixed sequence for determining the identification and/or presence of the target polynucleotide sequences. The chemical label covalently or noncovalently attached to the probe comprises a signalling moiety capable of generating a soluble signal detectable by spectrophotometric assay techniques.